Monday, October 7, 2013

New York Renaissance Faire

A few weekends ago, I went to the New York Renaissance Faire with a group of friends. It was the biggest one I've ever been to and it was completely overwhelming walking into it. First, to get there we had to wait in a long line of cars to park. From the parking lot, we had to take a school bus to get to the actual faire. We ran into some weird problems while we were there too, which I'll get into.

It was such a beautiful day out and we were constantly surrounded by awesome smelling food, which made it hard not to just give in and eat everything. Of course, I got my giant turkey leg, which I can never finish, but it's fine. I also ended up getting a giant pickle, a little cup of ice cream and later on, fresh squeezed lemonade. I cannot resist the fresh squeezed lemonade that you can get at fairs. It's the best lemonade EVER.

So the first weird problem we encountered was when we first got to the faire. When we were walking through the gate, a security guard told us that we weren't allowed to bring instruments into the faire if we weren't performers. There were NO signs telling us this and we had never heard of this rule, either. Chris had brought a ukulele and we got into an argument because we were not going to walk back to the bus stop, get on the school bus back to the parking lot and then come all the way back just to bring the ukulele back to the car. We asked to talk to someone else. The head security guy said that it was fine to bring in instruments, as long as you don't ask for money. So once we got that answer, we marched back to the first security guy with the grand and jolly feeling of being completely right when you were being told you were wrong. The security guard would NOT let us in until he spoke to the head guy and got confirmation that we weren't just lying. But once he did, he just said to us "Yeah, it's fine...but don't let me catch you trying to make money with it!"...as if he was going to follow up around all day to make sure. It was pretty ridiculous all for a ukulele that we were going to play just for fun.

The other issue came when Nadia went to order a beer. When they carded her, she gladly handed over her ID with nothing to worry about since she is of age. The bartender told her that he could not serve her because her license has a section that says when she was under 21 until. In other words, because her license says "UNDER 21 UNTIL ::INSERT DATE::", they couldn't serve her even though that date has long since passed. We were baffled. The guy said that it was a law now everywhere except Ohio, which I don't think is true since we've never had this happen to us before, and still haven't. In the end, they ended up serving her but told her to make sure she "didn't get too drunk". Uh...alright?

Other than that, the faire was fun! We ate yummy things, looked at all the cool shops and booths, and did archery. Well, I didn't, but some of the other guys did. They had a lot of cool things for sale, but nothing that really interested me. They had a ton of flower crowns, but I didn't get one. I actually wanted to wear the one that I got at the last faire, but when I went to put it on, it fell right down to my neck. Apparently, I can only wear my flower crown when my hair is curled and has more volume. It was not having it when my hair was straightened.

I decided to wear this tulle skirt since I had saw on the website that the weekend we were going was "Romance Weekend". I figured a pink tutu skirt is somewhat romantic in regards to fashion and style. I actually got this skirt years ago and have never worn it. I know that's so horrible, but it happened. I've accepted it, and I've moved on from it. I never had anything to wear it with, and it just took me a couple of years to come up with a creative solution.

I'm pretty sure I'm all renaissanced out for this year. Not that there are many, if any, faires in the later fall months and winter. I'm sure by the time there are some happening in the spring I may feel up to it again! Where else am I going to get a giant turkey leg around here?

That places looks insane. I have to say I find Ren Faires to be really weird. I think it is being British we are a bit bewildered by them. I mean we do have castles that do displays of archery and jousting etc in the summer, but even where they have comedy commentators I think they take it all a little more seriously. Although the food does look pretty scrumptious and it sounds like a fun time. It's just the whole concept somehow confuses me! :D

I used to go there every single year. One of my closest friends was always Maid Marian, so she would give us free tickets. We haven't been there in about 5 years though now. I think we went 6 years in a row! It is so fun! I used to love the mud show. I always wanted to buy the baby dragons too, and that guy also sells the anole lizards at another place nearby where I live, so he recognized me from the faire and so I still see him every year. I used to own about 7 or 8 of those lizards when I was a child, so maybe soon! hehe. I LOVE the steak on the stake! Do you like those? Their food is SO SO SO good!!! That psychic guild is new. . .they used to put all those types of things in the woodsy area only. We always walked around it. My husband and I got pre-engaged there and bought rings while there for it that my husband uses as his wedding band now. I used to have one of those parasols! it eventually ripped though. :( wah! I used it to keep the sun off me in normal daily use!Glad you had a good time at the good old NY Ren Faire!!+Victoria+

Love the skirt! Is this the Faire that's in Tuxedo?? I wanted to go to that one a couple years ago, but never ended up going. Strangely, I also have a friend who worked as Maid Marian there! The one near me, in Sterling, NY, is such a good one that I kind of don't want to have my love of Renaissance faires ruined by inferior ones... and these issues you guys ran into are SO WEIRD!!! I've NEVER heard of anything so SILLY. Especially the musical instrument one!!! I've seen people like, not be allowed to take fake swords, etc. into the faire, but never musical instruments (and if they weren't allowed, I'm pretty sure they'd offer to like, put them in an office or something, though the parking lot at our faire is right outside)! And the carding thing is too odd. Also, both of the responses are so strange. Maybe they're more used to dealing with hoodlums or something, bahah. I can never finish a turkey leg and so I've given up on them, honestly. There are faires in like, Arizona and stuff that happen all year (a lot of acts make their entire living off of touring around for the whole year!), but I'd rather just wait til summer anyway :)

Yup! This was the one in Tuxedo. And yeah....the issues we had were SO random! I didn't know there was another one in NY. I mean, I'm sure there are so many across the country and world! Maybe I'll check out the Sterling one next year. :)

Man, this looks like the most fun ever! Anchorage has a small Renaissance fair every year but its nothing in scale with this. (It had to of been so much fun!) I love how cute and laid back you look, that skirt is adorable for a fun fair like this, it's so swingy. I think alaska has the same law, every license changes when you turn 21 but I've never seen anyone actually enforce it, pretty much everyone goes by date. Outfits like this are usually under a lot of scrutiny and get set up for stings so it doesn't surprise me that they were following the law to a t, the penalties are really bad and can end up with the person selling the alcohol serving jail time of paying a big penalty. No fun for sure. :P